The cognitive effect of tailored safety communication on smokejumpers: An elaboration likelihood model perspective

The present study was grounded in Nilsen's (1960) philosophy of significant choice and enlisted Petty and Cacioppo's (1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion to determine if tailored safety communication among smokejumpers activated central route processing better than agency delivered safety communication. Analysis of the results confirmed that tailored safety communication encouraged smokejumpers to think more deeply about safety than they would if the message was delivered by the agency for which they work. A smokejumper focus group was utilized to determine what information would comprise a tailored safety message. Data obtained from this group was used to build a tailored message that was subsequently placed into a questionnaire alongside an agency derived safety message. The study participants were asked to choose one of the messages and explain why they chose it. There were 30 participants that completed the study and 24 participants chose the tailored message. Ultimately, the tailored message was chosen because it was described as a streamlined version of what the smokejumpers already know and also because there was a visual stimulus enlisted that helped them identify with the message. Information garnered from this study may transfer over to other firefighting groups as well as high-risk organizations such as police and military.